Sam Isaac Edwards: PIS_ AND VINEGAR

By Huffington Post
October 25, 2010

(I omitted the last “S” because I know how delicate we all are)

Okay, we’re mad already, they’re mad at us, we’re mad at them for being mad at us, and the rest of the country is mad at both of us for being mad at each other. So where does all this anger get us? Where it usually does, with the Big D’s and the Big R’s and now the Big T’s (“Teabloids”, since they seem to be a tabloid form of politics) involved in a scream fest that has reduced the current level of political discourse to something akin to an argument between Sylvester and Tweety Bird on who taw, or did not tee a Putty Tat.

Granted, we all have due justification for our displeasure. The big boys at the banks got rescued from their extended sojourn into Idiotville, without as much as a slap on the palm with a teachers ruler, and are now right back conducting their – OUR – affairs just as before. Oil Speculators can still wreak havoc with the price of our beloved gasoline with little up front risk; Mortgage Makers, the folks who got the fees coming and going endured the peal of tsk tsk’s from the pol’s and the media, but have barely lost a step; unemployment continues to Hoover – that is not a misspell – at around 10 percent and shows only tiny iotas, as opposed to regular iotas, of downward tick. So, with the midterms a week away, what, by heavens, is a voter to think? And if a voter does think, what does he/she do?

Obama and the Dems are in a serious pickle trying to prove a negative, that is, how much worse things would have been had they done nothing. The Reps are relying on the electorates short term memory loss on how we got into this brine barrel in the first place, that the 12 Trillion in cash owed when the Dems took over was mostly the result of the last three Republican Administrations. (I generally don’t dally with numbers, as easily skewed as any of those processes can be, but in “constant dollars” these are the facts: The National Debt and Interest (as a percentage of GDP), under Carter, my old boss increased 42%, ballooned, to use a kind term, to 189% under Reagan, dropped to 55.6% under Bush the Elder then dropped further to 36% during Clintons tenure, and then soared again with Bush the Younger to 89%. You do the extrapolation and the further associations, if any are necessary).

But, alas, it is only the recent political past that anyone remembers or cares about. Which, in todays constant streaming of mind blurring blitzkriegs of information, is defined as “so, what happened five minutes ago?” If you can corner a budget hawk and query him about the 12 Trill, he will spend a few moments shuffling his feet, then take a couple of tugs at his lapels, then allow his eyes to dart off into the ether like he’s trying to follow the flight path of a rabid moth, before trying to answer, by expectorating enough Pshaws to put out a good sized house fire.

No matter who wins what next Tuesday, the 2011 Congress is going to be a 2 year ride on a cold, white water river in an open canoe. Everybody is going to be wet and sneezing and Snotty is going to be the attitude of the day. And shortly after the oaths are taken, the subpoenas will begin to fly, and the Obamas will be pining for the good old days when they held the reins in both houses. And they’ll cuss themselves – and we’ll be cussing them – for squandering the last 24 months trying to play nice.